Teen Invents Tiny Device That Can Instantly Charge Phones

An 18-year-old has invented a device she says holds a charge 10 times longer than a regular battery and can fully charge a cellphone in 30 seconds.

It tied for second place at this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, alongside a space simulation that could teach astrophysicists new things about dark matter. First place went to an artificial intelligence for a self-driving car.

Super-capacitor inventor Eesha Khare, who lives in Saratoga, Calif., won $50,000. A San Francisco CBS affiliate says the money will help pay for her Harvard education beginning in the fall, and that Google has already expressed interest in her.

Khare’s prize also comes with some international prestige. The science fair featured about 1,600 young scientists from 433 affiliated fairs in more than 70 countries, regions and territories, Intel said.

Her device is small enough to fit inside a cellphone battery, and is also flexible enough to be incorporated into developing technologies such as roll-up devices, SFGate.com says. The device might even be used in car batteries, Intel said.